Neko Harbor & Dallmann Bay, Antarctica
In spring a young penguin’s fancy turns to thoughts of… stones. Their nests are made of stones. They are necessary to elevate their two eggs so the flood of spring snowmelt still to come will not cause the death of the young penguins-to-be contained within. The act of collecting and carrying stones has been ritualized into the breeding behavior of penguins. You have to have stones on your nest site to attract a mate, so when hormones start to course through the bodies of the males they just can’t resist picking up and moving stones. And where do they get the stones? Perhaps from the beach, but that might involve a long haul. Why not take from a nearby nest left over from last year, not yet occupied this season? Or if that fails, from your neighbor’s nest. Of course, while you are stealing one from the nest to your left, another penguin to your right just might be sneaking to collect one from your unprotected nest. And so it goes, the stones being passed from nest to nest and quickly redistributed around the colony. What a travelogue a single stone could write! This morning we watched this behavior and more at the colony of Gentoo penguins at Neko Harbor, where we came for our last landing of the trip. Across the bay several glaciers descended the steep slope from the Antarctic Peninsula to fill the bay with ice. On the landing side many scaled the snowy slope, penguin fashion, for a vista across Andvord Bay toward Anvers Island and Mount Français. (At 9,258 feet, it is the highest mountain of the Peninsula and takes its name from the first expedition ship of the French Antarctic explorer Jean-Baptiste Charcot.) Then came the decision of how to descend. Some chose to walk down again; others selected a more rapid descent and slid down the slope, emulating Shackleton, Worsley, and Crean on their epic crossing of South Georgia Island.
Reluctantly, we returned to the National Geographic Endeavour and set our course northward. As we crossed the Gerlache Strait we had two encounters with Antarctic killer whales (orcas) cruising through ice-filled waters in search of seals for their next meal. We entered Dallmann Bay, between Anvers and Brabant Islands, a wonderfully scenic place in which to absorb our last images of Antarctica. And then we headed into the Drake Passage toward Cape Horn, Ushuaia, and our return to civilization.
In spring a young penguin’s fancy turns to thoughts of… stones. Their nests are made of stones. They are necessary to elevate their two eggs so the flood of spring snowmelt still to come will not cause the death of the young penguins-to-be contained within. The act of collecting and carrying stones has been ritualized into the breeding behavior of penguins. You have to have stones on your nest site to attract a mate, so when hormones start to course through the bodies of the males they just can’t resist picking up and moving stones. And where do they get the stones? Perhaps from the beach, but that might involve a long haul. Why not take from a nearby nest left over from last year, not yet occupied this season? Or if that fails, from your neighbor’s nest. Of course, while you are stealing one from the nest to your left, another penguin to your right just might be sneaking to collect one from your unprotected nest. And so it goes, the stones being passed from nest to nest and quickly redistributed around the colony. What a travelogue a single stone could write! This morning we watched this behavior and more at the colony of Gentoo penguins at Neko Harbor, where we came for our last landing of the trip. Across the bay several glaciers descended the steep slope from the Antarctic Peninsula to fill the bay with ice. On the landing side many scaled the snowy slope, penguin fashion, for a vista across Andvord Bay toward Anvers Island and Mount Français. (At 9,258 feet, it is the highest mountain of the Peninsula and takes its name from the first expedition ship of the French Antarctic explorer Jean-Baptiste Charcot.) Then came the decision of how to descend. Some chose to walk down again; others selected a more rapid descent and slid down the slope, emulating Shackleton, Worsley, and Crean on their epic crossing of South Georgia Island.
Reluctantly, we returned to the National Geographic Endeavour and set our course northward. As we crossed the Gerlache Strait we had two encounters with Antarctic killer whales (orcas) cruising through ice-filled waters in search of seals for their next meal. We entered Dallmann Bay, between Anvers and Brabant Islands, a wonderfully scenic place in which to absorb our last images of Antarctica. And then we headed into the Drake Passage toward Cape Horn, Ushuaia, and our return to civilization.
